The present invention relates to a guide for a mineral mining machine such as a plough.
It is known to guide a mineral winning machine or a mineral loading machine, such as a plough, for movement along a mineral face. For this purpose guides of various designs have been adopted. Normally the guide for the machine or plough would be constructed of individual sections or parts arranged end-to-end and secured to the mineral face side of a scraper-chain conveyor. Conveniently, one guide section or part can be allocated to each channel section or pan of the conveyor. With a view to clearing and loading the material detached from the mineral face of the mine working it is known to provide a ramp-like loading surface on the guide. This ramp-like surface can be produced by cover plates behind which are located upper and lower chain guide passages which receive an endless chain used to propel the machine along the guide.
The machine may be connected to the chain running in the lower passage by way of a narrow slot below the cover plates. It is known to provide a rail formed by welded-on plates at the lower edges of the cover plates to define this slot and to positively guide the machine in the vicinity of the slot. A guide of this type is described in German patent specification No. 1,277,181.
In this known guide construction bearing eyes are welded into the rail at the ends of the guide sections to receive pins which provide pivot joints permitting the cover plates to be pivoted towards the face to permit access to the chain guide passages. This and other mounting systems for the cover plates in the known types of guides are relatively expensive to fabricate and are not particularly stable.
A general object of this invention is to provide an improved guide.